Entrepreneurship and Running a Coaching Practice–The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly with Katrina Ubell, MD

In this episode of The Doctor’s Life podcast, host Dr. Dianne Ansari-Winn sits down with Dr. Katrina Ubell for a continued discussion on the topic of entrepreneurship, what it looks like to have a successful coaching practice and how to successfully transition out of full-time clinical medicine. In this continuation of their prior conversation Dr. Dianne and Dr. Katrina discuss what it looked like for each of them to finally transition from clinical medicine to an entrepreneurial endeavor in coaching. While part 1 of their discussion looked at the steps and process it will likely take to make the decision to leave a clinical practice, this accompanying discussion focuses more on the practical aspects of what it looks like to do that successfully. The aim here is to help doctors who may be considering a transition to know the crucial things they will need to assess before making the jump into another business venture as they try to do it as smoothly and successfully as possible

As Dr. Dianne and Dr. Katrina discuss, they both decided to leave clinical medicine for a number of reasons, but prior to making the change, both had given the overall transition a lot of time and attention. Dr. Katrina, who was a pediatrician for a number of years prior to leaving her practice in 2015, made the change to life-coaching as a way to improve her overall health and wellness while still finding enjoyment doing something she highly valued. But as she shares, there were a number of things that she needed to consider before making the jump, including the financial implications of a major change like this. While both Dr. Dianne and Dr. Katrina were able to make the transition out of clinical medicine with little impact to their overall economic well being, they identify that many in this position are not as easily able to do that. The encouragement then is to decide what style of life you will want and need during the transition and to make sure you have a concrete plan moving forward before you start. While having a working spouse or significant other may be of great benefit, there are still realistic conversations that will need to take place prior to making the change as you plan for the worst case scenario. The reality for most, as they admit, may be to keep working your day job until you can financially make the transition through creating a nest egg to carry you through. Similarly, there will also need to be a change in your overall mindset as you leave a steadily paying opportunity while you look to “earn back” your newfound investment through hustling and working in a way where you wouldn’t want to fire yourself. The reality, as they propose, is that in order to succeed you need to be investing your time and effort in a way that will help make sure you succeed.

Another focal point of their conversation is reviewing both the realistic positives and negatives of making the transition into full-time entrepreneurship. While many think that working for yourself or being your own boss comes with few (if any) challenges, this is not the reality. To be clear, Dr. Dianne and Dr. Katrina do offer some talking points about the great benefits of entrepreneurial ventures like having uncapped growth opportunity, always having the ability to improve or change things you don’t like and getting to do what you do like. But aside from these there are also opportunities to see your strengths played out in a new way which can be personally fulfilling. But these positives are also met with some real challenges, such as a temptation to over work and a consistent need to hold yourself accountable while you’re being stretched (at times, uncomfortably). While trying to bring a realistic perspective, the two posit that the reality is that non-clinical work is still work. And while there is tremendous benefit to making the change out of clinical medicine and into an entrepreneurial or coaching role, there is still tremendous need to find the right balance while working diligently to take care of yourself.